Conspiracy theories that the Sunday night Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre was a false flag operation conducted by Israel spread online in the wake of the terrorist attack that left at least 16 people dead.
Social media accounts on Reddit and X/Twitter, many with large followings, spread the theory that Israel was behind the attack in the Sydney suburb, including claims that the Mossad organized the attack as a geopolitical maneuver, victims were crisis actors, and one of the shooters was an IDF shooter.
Dozens of accounts claimed that the Mossad orchestrated the shootings to win sympathy from the global community amid public diplomacy problems or in order to mobilize supporters for continued conflict with Iran.
X and Reddit users pointed to investigations into Iranian involvement, following the Islamic Republic’s hand in other incidents in Australia, as proof of an attempt to manufacture consent for a war.
“Bondi was a false flag to kick off another war,” wrote Michael Rivero, whose X account has over 10,000 followers.
Some commentators claimed that the experience of the attackers with firearms proved that they were actually IDF soldiers ordered to carry out the false flag. Others claimed that one of the alleged terrorists was an IDF soldier who had mental issues because of his service in Gaza.
“Naveed Akram is an IDF soldier that served in Gaza and returned to Australia,” an account called Jvnior said in a post with over six million views on X. “Today, he lost his mind and killed 12 Jews.”
Another supposed piece of evidence of Israeli manipulation of events touted by conspiracy theorists was the alleged use of planted actors pretending to be victims of violence. Far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s brother promoted a theory that Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) Sydney head Arsen Ostrovsky, who was wounded in the attack, was a “crisis actor.”
“When your ego betrays the Op,” Buckley Carlson wrote on X.
He shared a claim from an account with thousands of followers that Ostrovsky’s presence and wounding at the Jewish communal event dispelled “any doubts about Zionist networks and intelligence staged shooting incidents.”
“This theatre will be used to justify ramping up ‘security’ policy: New speech and antisemitism laws, more funding to Israel, and more money funneled to private pro-Israel groups under the banner of ‘community safety,” said the account, posting pictures demonstrating Ostrovsky’s credentials as a pro-Israel activist.
'Indications of foreknowledge of the attack'
Conspiracy theorists supported their claims of a false flag operation by claiming that there were indications of foreknowledge of the attack. Social media users pointed to conspiracy theorist and podcaster Candace Owens’s claims in late November that conservative journalist Laura Loomer’s warnings about 9/11-style attacks indicated that such a terrorist incident would occur in the second week of December. Supporters claimed that Owens’s prediction had been fulfilled by the Sydney shooting.
The anti-Israel social media account Israel Exposed asserted on X that Google Trends data showed that the name of the shooter had been searched on the platform before the incident, though numbers and dates fluctuated and were replicable in other countries.